north dale park

St. Paul is a big and busy city. Where a lot of cities have one community or recreation center, there are several scattered throughout the capital of Minnesota. Some of them are well-run, others run down.

Last week we found our way to North Dale Park, located on the premises of the North Dale Recreation Center (1414 St. Albans Street North). Luckily for us, this rec center is one of the nice ones.


Here's what you need to know:
Parking: Lot
Age range (playground): 3+
Sidewalks: Paved to both sections of the play area
Seating: Limited benches
Bathrooms: Inside rec center
Picnic tables: None
Grills: None
Sports field: Sports fields located on rec center sites


My kiddos were thrilled as soon as we stepped into the play area: sand. They got kinetic sand in the fall and they've been in love since. Seeing as we don't run into a lot of playgrounds with sand, this was a super special treat.

To my surprise, there are a lot of different play structures stationed in the play area: A playground; a sand play area; spring riders for days; two swing sets; and a climbing web.


As you enter the play area, there is a climbing web (looks like a dream catcher) and two baby swings next to it. A trail leads off the main sidewalk to the swing set of regular swings in the middle of the play area.

The playground is stocked with several slides, two of which are extremely tall (and a huge hit for my kids); a variety of climbing challenges (stairs, hanging steps, wall, and ladders); and a variety of other equipment to promote gross motor skills (tunnels, monkey bars, elevated stepping stones, track rider).


All of my kids (ages 15 months to 4.5 years) were able to navigate the majority of the playground without my help.

The sand play area has a large ship-like structure complete with a mini slide and climbing net. There are also a side door and a "plank" (ramp) kids can use to board the ship. Zoey (15 months) had no trouble navigating this area.


To the far side of the play area is a line of spring riders and a cute, toddler-sized picnic table. There's also a small sand play table where kids can funnel sand from one level of the table to another. The entire play area is fenced.

We had a blast at North Dale Park. There was plenty to do, especially with the sand. Since the park is also a part of the rec center, it had plenty of traffic in and around the play area. This was a plus for me since we visited in the evening  (it's nice park, but still in a sketchy neighborhood).


I would caution that the two metal slides are extremely slippery: I went down and slid right off before I knew what was happening. If you visit, remember that sand and metal slides get really hot sitting out in the sun all day.